Seattle Moves To Legalize Heroin

• Seattle is now in a giant revolution to get safe sites for hard drug users up throughout the state.
• They want addicts to be able to shoot up or do hard drugs in the presence of medical professionals.
• So far the community has been fairly open to the idea.
• New York has even followed suit and wants on the bandwagon as well.

What does the dark, ocean front city, with a reputation for grunge and suicide need most? What about an area to smoke and inject hard drugs under medical supervision? That sounds like the perfect combination. That is exactly what Seattle is pushing for. They want to be the first state in the country that allows their citizens to do hard drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, etc.) in the presence of medical professionals.

Groups around the state are in motion to get “safe consumption sites” off the ground as quickly as possible. Some are planning to open the sites with little to no money, whereas others are starting awareness campaigns to get the support of local citizens as well as politicians.

The positive spin the supportive party is suggesting is that these safe consumption sites could reduce overdose deaths, HIV, and Hepatitis C. Not to mention it would help to remove all the dirty needles that are left on sidewalks and city streets.

This makes me wonder if people know how an overdose on heroin works. The presence of a medical professional can only guarantee that you will have someone there who will try to revive you if you start to flatline. Heroine is a downer. The “high” you get from doing heroine comes from a slowed heart rate. In a simple way, heroine lowers your heart rate to the brink of death, giving you a euphoric comatose sensation. The longer you do it over time, the weaker the heart becomes, sooner or later the heart can't come back from the lowered heart rate and it gives out.

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However, people are arguing that the safe sites could keep addicts alive long enough to seek treatment. Their “example” is Insite, a 13-year-old safe site in Vancouver, B.C. No overdose deaths have occurred at the site. The founder of Insite, Liz Evans, spoke with Seattle's City Council Public-Health Committee last month about the concept.

Mayor Ed Murray and King County Sheriff John Urquhart are actively interested in the project. Sheriff Urquhart says that he is leaning towards backing the project.

Urquhart said, “I was a narcotics detective, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. But the more I hear, the more open I am to the possibility.”

The People's Harm Reduction Alliance is the group that is pushing to open the site. The director of the organization, Shilo Murphy, said, “This isn’t a matter of if — this is a matter of when. We need to move ahead as fast as we can because this is a crisis because people are dying.”

So far the group has raised $20,000 to open up a safe site. They are now in the process of looking for a landlord of a property they could use. Apparently, the group started working towards this goal two years ago. Murphy said, “We were like, ‘This is the right time to strike. We went to work.”

In 2014 alone deaths from overdosing on heroin in Kings County skyrocketed to 156. In 2013 the death toll was only 99. The problem isn't getting better it's getting worse, and now they want to allow people to do it more?

However, the discussion is still up in the are.

Seattle has become a role-model now in the fight for safe sites. New York has now petitioned to opening up safe sites for users to enjoy hard drugs with the accompaniment of medical professionals.

The problem is, I know it's corny to say, but this is all a gateway problem. People all thought that making marijuana legal was a good idea. I mean, you can't overdose on marijuana, it doesn't kill you. Which, to be fair is true. However, laws had to be put into place so people couldn't drive while high, yet we all know that they do. All of this has made it more acceptable to the public to start passing more and more laws concerning harder and harder drugs.

Now, people want to make spaces for people to come and legally do harder drugs. Is that not what the definition of a gateway drug is? Of course, no one sees the correlation because the two things seem so separated from each other, but are they? You get the community started on marijuana and now people want hard stuff. That's the way addiction works.

You can make it legal to do harder drugs, it could stop the number of deaths caused by overdose, but it will not fix the problem. The problem will be re-rooted to a different area.

The last thing we need is more people getting high on drugs.

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